Dying killer focuses on his brother

Ramon Torres Hernandez Age at execution: 40 Execution: Nov. 14, 2012 Summary: Hernandez was convicted of abducting, robbing, sexually assaulting and murdering a woman before burying her body in a shallow grave in a wooded area.

Photo By ROBERT MCLEROY/EXPRESS-NEWS FILE PHOTO

Alleged serial killer Ramon Hernandez stands as jurors enter the courtroom for his trial in the death of Rosa Maria Rosado Tuesday October 1, 2002. (Robert McLeroy/Staff)

Photo By Courtesy photo

Rosa Maria Rosado , 37 , a single mother, was found dead in shallow grave near UTSA on April 5, 2001.

Photo By JOHN DAVENPORT/San Antonio Express-News

This is a portrait of Sarah Beth Gonzales who was 13 when she was kidnapped, raped and killed along with her cousin Priscilla Almares, then 12 in 1994. The man responsible for the crimes, Ramon Hernandez, is scheduled to be executed on November 14, 2012. Hernandez is being executed for a different crime, though. That crime was the rape and murder of Rosa Maria Rosado,37, a single mom who was found in a shallow grave in 2001.

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HUNTSVILLE — Looking at his brother, the only member of his family to witness his execution Wednesday, Ramon Hernandez asked him to tell everyone he loved them.

“Did I ever tell you, you have dad's eyes?” Hernandez said to his brother.

His brother, standing close to the glass and crying said: “I love you.”

Hernandez, called a serial rapist and murderer by prosecutors, was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m., 26 minutes after the lethal dose of drugs began flowing.

A jury sentenced Hernandez to death for the 2001 abduction, rape and strangulation slaying of Rosa Maria Rosado, 37, a single mom who was snatched from a West Side bus stop.

Hernandez's girlfriend at the time, Asel Abdygapparova, led police to Rosado's body five days later. She had been buried in a shallow grave by Loop 1604 and UTSA Boulevard.

Abdygapparova was given life in prison, and a third co-defendant, Santos Minjarez, was given the death penalty. He died in January from natural causes before his execution date was set.

Abdygapparova's sentence was overturned in 2007 and she remains in Bexar County Jail, awaiting a new trial.

During the investigation into Rosado's homicide, authorities linked Hernandez through DNA to another high-profile case from the mid-1990s.

In that case, Sarah Gonzales, 13, and her cousin Priscilla Almares, 12, were reported missing Dec. 16, 1994, then found the next day in Rodriguez Park. They had been raped, beaten and strangled.

Family members of Priscilla and Rosado also witnessed the execution. Standing up to the glass, Priscilla's sister Brenda Ayala had tears in her eyes as Hernandez spoke his last words.

He was strapped to the gurney just after 6 p.m. and began his last statement at 6:11 p.m.

“I'm sorry for putting you through all of this ...,” he said, looking at his brother. “I am very sorry for all of the pain. I love them all, tell mom, everybody.”

After Hernandez appeared to stop breathing, his brother had to turn away for several minutes. He was supported by three spiritual advisers.

Ayala spoke after the execution and said she had hoped Hernandez would have apologized directly to the families of his victims but instead focused on just his brother.

Ayala, sitting with her father Marcos Almares, said the family didn't find closure in the execution.

“We're not cruel people; we don't want to have to watch somebody die,” she said. “It doesn't give us happiness at all. If anything I felt sorrow for his family. They'll have to feel what we felt.”

Rosado's family — her two sisters and a brother-in-law — didn't speak to the media.

Attempts to reach Hernandez's family weren't successful.

Hernandez's was the first of two executions scheduled this week — Preston Hughes, 46, of Harris County faces injection today.